Những khó khăn trong việc dạy và học kỹ năng nói đối với giáo viên và sinh viên không chuyên ngành quản lý văn hóa trường cao đẳng văn hóa nghệ thuật thanh hóa

Part A: Intro du ctio n
1. Rationale
Learning English is becoming a need that most students are aware of and that the
society demands, especially in the process of industrialization and modernization in
connection to the open door policy of Viet Nam. Therefore, the idea that only English
major students have priority in enhancing their skills becomes backward. In fact, every
learner must be taken care of so that they can benefit from the modern educational
opportunities. It is confirmed that both English major students and non- English major
students should be given good consideration and education to improve overall. Even for
non- English major students, the four skills as speaking, listening, reading and writing
should be stimulated.
According to Dong Xiaohong (1994.31) speaking is "one of the most necessary
language proficiency". Speaking, thus, seems to be the most important skill that should be
paid attention to in the process of teaching and learning. Likewise, today's world requires
that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because,
only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and
culture rules. It is true for the non- English major students of culture management of Thanh
hoa college of Culture and Art (THCCA) where learners are future office secretaries or
culture managers who learn English in order to be able to communicate with the foreigners
and to work as secretaries in the offices. But in fact there are a large number of students
who find it difficult to speak in English. When most of the students are required to talk in
English, they often stand speechless or they have to think for a long time about what they
intend to say.
Moreover, when poor speaking competence is reported, one tends to blame the
students for having poor ability or making insufficient effort. Nevertheless, there are other
important factors in the teaching and learning process that should be taken into
consideration. It could be unsuitable teaching materials, inappropriate attitude of the
teachers and students toward the subject, teachers' inappropriate teaching methods or
insufficients class time allocated to speaking.
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So what are the speaking difficulties for the teachers and non- English major students

of Culture management at THCCA? This is the question that the following study attempts
to investigate. Once problems have been identified, it will be possible to give solutions to
the teachers and students to improve the teaching and learning of speaking skill at
THCCA.
2. Aims of the study
The study has been carried out with the following purposes.
- To identify the students' attitude toward speaking skill.
- To investigate the teachers and non- English major students' areas of
speaking difficulties.
- To give some suggestions and solutions to reduce difficulties and improve
the teaching and learning of speaking skill.
In other words, the aims of the study are to answer the following questions.
1. What are the difficulties encountered by non- English major students who
are learning speaking skill in the English course book “English for office
secretaries" at THCCA?
2. What are difficulties for the teachers in teaching speaking skill?
3. What are feasible solutions to overcome the identified difficulties?
3. Scope of the study.
Dealing with speaking problems of all current materials used for non major students
of culture management is too broad for a study of this size. Therefore, the focus of this
study is to investigate speaking difficulties experienced by teachers and non- English major
students of culture management at THCCA when using the course book “ English for
office secretaries” designed by the teacher at THCCA, then give solutions to the problems
in order to help students improve their speaking skill.
4. Methods of the study.
To fulfill the above aims, a study has been carried out on the basis of material
collection and two survey questionnaires
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- For the theoretical basis, many materials on speaking are collected,
gathered, analyzed and synthesized considerately for the content of the intended thesis.

- For the practical basis, the researcher chooses the survey research with two
survey questionnaires for teachers and non- English major students of culture management
at THCCA.
5. Design of the study.
The minor thesis is devided into three parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion.
Part A (Introduction) presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the
design of the study.
Part B (Development) consists of five chapters
Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background, which is relevant to the
purpose of the study.
Chapter 2 gives a brief introduction on the materials and current situations of
teaching speaking at THCCA.
Chapter 3 describes the research methodology, which focuses on the context
of the study, participants, the instruments and data collection procedure.
Chapter 4 deals with data analysis and some suggestions
Part C (Conclusion) summaries the study and offers some suggestion for further research.
Part B: development
Chapter 1: Literature review
1.1. The nature of speaking
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1.1.1. Definition of speaking.
It is obvious that speaking is the key to human communication. Though speaking
takes many definitions, following are some of the definitions by the most famous
researchers According to Byrne (1976:8), “speaking is a two-way process between the
speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive
skill of understanding.” Both the listener and the speaker have a positive function to
perform: the speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed in appropriate language,
while the listener has to decode the message. The message itself in normal speech usually
contains a great deal of information that the listener needs. And at the same time, the

listener is helped by the speakers’ prosodic features such as stress and intonation which
accompany the spoken utterances and form part of its meaning, and also by his facial and
body movements.
Brown (1983) also states that “speaking is an interactive process of constructing
meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.” Its form and
meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants
themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for
speaking. It is often spontaneous, open ended and evolving. However, speech is not always
unpredictable. Language functions that tent to recur in certain discourse situations
(declining and invitation, requesting time off from work) can be identified and charted.
Speaking requires not only that learners know how to produce specific points of language,
such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they
understand when, why and in what way to produce language (sociolinguistic competence).
Scott (1978) reveals that “speaking can be typified as an activity involving two or
more people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to
what they hear and make their contribution.” Each has an intention or a set of intentions
that he wants to achieve in the interaction and an ability to interpret what is said to him
which he can not predict exactly either in terms of form or in terms of meaning.
Chaney (1988:13) defined that “speaking is the process of building and sharing
meaning through the use verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”.
Different researchers have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with
one very important feature of speaking, that is a two way process between the speaker and
listener.
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1.1.2. Spoken language and communication:
It would be pointless to talk about the importance of language if we ignore relation
between language and communication as language is a means of communication.
According to Broughton (1980:25), “all living creatures have some means of conveying
information to others of their own group, communication being ultimately essential for
their survival;” Man can use various means of communication, but mainly through spoken

language. Today, it is commonplace to say that “language is never used for its own sake,
but always for the sake of achieving an objective, or to perform a function, to persuade, in
form, inquire, threaten, etc.” (Ur, 1981:3).
Brown and Yule (1983:23) believe that spoken language has two main functions:
“The primary function of spoken language is interactional, to establish and maintain
social relations.” Most people spend a lot of their daily lives chatting with others. The
purpose is to express their emotion and concerns to the person they are talking to. Not only
do they chat with their relatives or friends, but also they spend a lot of time talking with
strangers so that they can remain social relations. Moreover, another important function of
spoken language is transactional to convey information. This deduction is again confirmed
by Broughton (1980):
Thoughts
Sender Language Recipient
Figure 1: Spoken language and communication
He explains that thanks to spoken language, we can produce a sequence of vocal
sounds in such a way that listeners can reconstruct from these sounds an approximation to
our original meaning thus understands the thought.
According to Wright (1987), we speak because of the following reasons:
- Giving or asking for factual information
- Expressing what we think and find out what someone else thinks.
- Expressing what we feel and find out what someone else feels.
- Expressing what we think is right or wrong,…etc.
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In order to exchange information, a man has to talk with other people and thus he
uses spoken language to take part in communication.
1.1.3. Types of speaking.
There are two major types of speaking: monologue and dialogue
Monologue
In Brown and Yule’s opinion (1983), a monologue involves the ability to give an
uninterrupted oral presentation such as when a broad caster reads news in radio or

television programs, a teacher or professor gives a formal lecture, an announcer gives the
instruction or changes in the airport, etc. This type corresponds with non-reciprocal
listening where the transfer of information is in one-direction only from the speaker to the
listener and is used like the written form with no reaction and response from the listener.
These types take place when the speaker wants to talk with a large number of listeners
about the same issue.
Dialogue
A dialogue, conversely, means interacting between two or more speakers for
transactional and interactional purpose. There are turn takings to change the roles of
speakers and listeners in this type. Idea exchanges occur directly and quickly as well.
Donne Byrne (1986) also says: “Dialogues seem to be best suited to the teaching of the
spoken language”. Using a dialogue to speak spoken English to non-major students of
culture management is one of effective techniques which will be discussed in this study.
1.1.4. Speaking skill
According to Martin Bygate (1987:5), there are two basics ways in which speaking
can be seen as a skill.
He distinguishes between motor-perceptive skills, which are concerned with correctly
using the sounds and the structures of the language and interactional skills, which involve
using motor-perceptive skills for the purpose of communication.
Motor-perceptive skills are developed in the classroom through activities such as
model dialogues, pattern practice, oral drills, etc Until relatively recently, it was assumed
that mastery of motor- perceptive skills was what one needed in order to communicate
successfully. We now know that this is not necessarily the case and that learners can
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benefit from direct classroom practice in communicative interaction. Bygate suggests that,
in particular, learners need to develop skills in the management of interaction and also in
the negotiation of meaning. The management of interaction involves such things as
knowing when and how to take the floor, when to introduce a topic or change the subject,
how to invite someone else to speak, how to keep the conversation going, when and how to
terminate the conversation and so on. Negotiation of meaning refers to the skill of making

sure the person you are speaking to has correctly understood you and that you have
correctly understood them.
Speaking, therefore, can be considered as a skill for many reasons: the first is that we
don’t know how to assemble sentences in the abstract. The second is that we have to
produce them and adapt depending on circumstances.
1.1.5. Stages of teaching speaking.
1.1.5.1. The role of the teacher and students in teaching and learning speaking
The role of the teacher
According to Breen and Candlin (1980), the teacher has three main roles in a
speaking class. The first is to act as a facilitator of the communicative process, the second
is to act as a participant, and the third is to act as an observer. In addition, Donn Byrne
(1976:3) has a clearer explanation for the teacher’s roles as follows:
* The teacher acts as an informant at the presentation stage
He/ she knows the language items, selects new materials and presents them in such a
way as to make its meaning clear and understandable and as memorable as possible. The
students listen to the teacher’s introduction and try to understand. The major thing is how
the teacher will present the lesson so that the limited time of one lesson is not affected and
the students get enough time to practise the new language items themselves.
* The teacher as a conductor and monitor at the practice stage
At this stage, the teacher talking time is less. It is the students’ turn to do most of the
talking. The teacher’s main role is to provide students with the maximum amount of
practice which must be both meaningful and practical. He/she becomes a skilful conductor
of an orchestra giving each performer (student) a chance to take part.
* The teacher as a guide at the production stage
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The lesson finishes when the students are given enough new language items. But at
any level, students need to be given regular opportunities to use language freely.
Furthermore, they want to put what they have learned into real life. And through these
opportunities they can use the language as they wish to express their own ideas so that they
will become aware that they have learned something useful to them and are encouraged to

pursue learning. Therefore, the teacher takes the role of a guide or an adviser in providing
the students with activities for free expression even if they occasionally make mistakes.
The role of the learners
The aim of teaching speaking is to enable learners to communicate effectively and
successfully in real life. In Nunan’s view (1998: 80). To meet this aim the learners have
take the following roles :
- The learner is the passive recipient of outside stimuli
- The learner is an interactor and negotiator who is capable of giving as well
as taking.
- The learner is a listener and performer who have little control over the
content of learning.
- The learner is involved in a process of personal growth.
- The learner is involved in a social activity, and the social and inter-
personal roles of the learner cannot be divorced from psychological learning process
- The learner must take responsibility for their own learning developing
autonomy and skills in learning how to learn.
1.1.5. 2. Stages of teaching speaking
According to Methodology course 1- Teaching the skills (Ha Noi 2002: 42-43) a
speaking lesson should have three stages: pre-speaking, while- speaking, and post-
speaking. Obviously, each stage has it own characteristics.
The Pre-speaking stage
This stage plays an essential role in the whole process of a speaking lesson because
it is difficult to ask students to speak without preparation which involves such activities as
pre-speaking questions, brain storming, discussion tasks or vocabulary tasks It is
commonly found in every course book that oral materials are written into different forms:
dialogue and prose. Byrne introduced the procedure in which the ten steps to present
dialogue are included.
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- Establish the setting: Pictures are made use of and drawn if simple. Use English as
much as possible at this stage

- Arouse students interests and experience related to the situation
- Explain some selective words
- Set a listening task by asking key questions of the dialogue
- Ask the students to listen without looking at their books
- Ask the students to look at their books while they are listening
- Ask the students to listen and repeat
- Deal with any difficulties in the dialogue
- Ask the students to practise the dialogue
- Ask the students to dramatize the dialogue
What’s more, the presentation of prose massage suggested by Byrne (1991: 26)
includes the nine steps.
- Introduce the topic by asking the students to have a quick look at the picture or by
asking them about a related book, film, or TV programme they have seen.
- Introduce the text including new words or new structures. However, there is no
need to explain all things in the text.
- Provide relevant language practice, for example, train the students with
pronunciation drill so that they can speak English easily, fluently and also help
them remember the new words
- Set the reading task by making questions
- Ask the students to read the silently
- Read the passage aloud
- Explain any difficulties faced by the students
- Do silent reading again
- Get the students to talk about what they have learned
The two above produces could be said that they are perfect for presenting a dialogue
and prose. However, depending on the students’ level and time allocation, some of the
steps can be left out. In addition, before delivering activities for this stage, the teacher
needs to pay careful attention to the object of each lesson, the situation of teaching and
learning and the student’ needs as well.
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The while- speaking stage
Unlike the pre-speaking stage, it is the student’s turn to do most of the talking. The
teacher, at this stage, lets students work with each other without interfering or correcting
any mistakes in order not to stop students from speaking fluently. The teacher only gives
assistance if necessary. The specific aim of the while- speaking stage is to develop
students’ speaking skill so the teacher does the minimum amount of teaching and talking
since the students will be working on the while- speaking task by themselves, individually
or in groups. Instead, the teacher will have to do a lot of monitoring and assisting weaker
students who have difficulty completing the task.
The post- speaking stage
It is the last phase of a speaking lesson so it is the time for the students’ production.
What they produce will reflect their speaking skill, interests or views. A real show of
English speaking takes place when the students are able to use English for themselves.
Also, when they reflect upon their performance, they can recognize what they have done
well and where they require improvement.
The post-speaking stage is like the follow up stages. After students have practised
speaking skill in the while- speaking stage, they do an extension speaking activity. This
helps students take the information from other groups or whatever they have produced in
the while- speaking stage and do something meaningful with it. Accordingly, getting the
students to report their work and the whole class may be invited to comment can be
recommended to be the most effective at this stage. Thus, the teacher in this stage must
take on the role of a manager or a guide in order to give feed back, correct serious
mistakes, give students marks and set personal goals for improving their speaking abilities.
Byrne (1988:2) comes to a conclusion that to develop oral ability, the three stages:
pre-speaking, while- speaking and post- speaking should be followed orderly.
Nevertheless, due to time constraint, purposes of a speaking lesson, types of students and
materials in use, this sequence might not always be applied mechanically on every
occasion. However, teachers ought to pay attention to what has been spoken by the
students during the while and post speaking stages so that they can see how far students
improves their speaking ability, what mistakes they might produce, what problems they

encounter. Then appropriate techniques, particularly technique to deal with students’
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mistakes and problems would be mapped out. These questions are explained clearly in the
study.
1.2. Problems with speaking and speaking activities
1.2.1 Problems with speaking
Everything has bad and good sides. Speaking also has its own problems.
According to Brown (1994:256), the characteristics of spoken language can make
oral performance easy as well as in some cases difficult. There are following problems
with speaking.
* Clustering
Fluent speech is phrase not word by word. Learners can organize output both
cognitively and physically through such clustering.
* Redundancy
The speaker has an opportunity to make clearer through the redundancy of language.
Learner can capitalize on this featured of spoken language
* Reduced forms
Contraction, elisions, reduced vowel, etc all form special problems in teaching
spoken English. Students don’t learn colloquial contraction can sometimes develop a
stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatize them.
* Colloquial language
Colloquialism appears both in monologues and dialogues. If learners are only
exposed to standard English and / or “ text book” language, they sometimes have difficulty
in understanding and producing words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language.
* Stress, rhythm and intonation
This is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation because the stress-
timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important massages.
But the fact that learners of English often find it difficult to pronounce English words, to
stress the right syllables, to follow the stress- timed rhythm and intonation patterns of
spoken English.

* Affective factors
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In the process of learning speaking, students often encounter the risk of saying out
things that may be wrong, stupid and incomprehensible. At those times, they tend to be
anxious because they do not want to be judged by other learners.
* Interaction
The greatest difficulty that the students face in learning to speak originates from the
interactive nature of most communication. Engaged in the process of negotiation of
meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to do the complex task of choosing
what to say, how to say, when to say, etc. Learners are also affected by their interlocutors’
performance.
1.2.2. Problems with speaking activities
In order to know more clearly about the problems in learning and teaching speaking
that students and teachers often meet, we should concern some problems with speaking
activities suggested by Mr. Luu Qui Khuong (2000:56, 57)
•
Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some
degree of real time exposure to an audience. Learners are often inhibition about
trying to say things in a foreign language. In the classroom: worried about making
mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their
speech attracts.
•
Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain
that they cannot think of anything to say, or that they have no motive to express
themselves beyond the guilty feeling.
•
Lows or uneven participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is
to heard; and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little
talking time. This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to
dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.

•
Mother- tongue use: In classes all, or a number of the learners share the same
mother tongue for many reasons: firstly, they may tend to use it because it is easier.
Secondly, they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and
lastly because they feel less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue. If
they are talking in a small group it can be quite difficult to get some class-
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particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones to keep to the target language.
(Cited from practical Course for Teaching English as a Foreign Language 2000: 56).
Through two sections above, we can know most of the difficulties that students often
encounter in learning speaking skill. Basing on these views, my research intend to
investigate what difficulties the teachers and non major students at THCCA encounter in
teaching and leaning speaking skill with the purpose of giving solutions to the identified
problems and improving the students’ speaking skill.
Chapter 2: An overview on the materials and
current situation of teaching speaking at THCCA
2.1. Brief introduction of Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Art.
Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Art has been in operation for 18 years. At the
beginning, its duty was to train only teachers of Art and Music, so English serves as a
means that provides students with basic knowledge about grammar and vocabulary. Since
2005, many new branches have been opened such as Tour Guide and Hotel Receptionists,
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Informatics Library, and Culture Management studies. Accordingly, English has become a
major subject for the students of these fields.
Every year our college admits more than 700 newly enrolled students for a course of 3 year
study, of whom 100 students are trained in the Faculty of Culture which is the biggest
section at THCCA. After graduating students of this field will become culture managers or
office secretaries because they are granted an additional certificate specialized in office
secretary. Therefore, the authority in our college has decided that English is the main
subject with the purpose of helping these non-major students to develop their English

communicative skill to meet the demand of their future employment.
2.2. Teachers and teaching methods
Our college has got 8 teachers of English language aged from 24 and 50. Seven of
them had formal ELT training in different universities inside Viet Nam, and only one had
an in-service ELT training course. The oldest teacher has more 20 years of teaching
experience and the youngest teacher has got one year. None of us have ever participated in
refreshment courses abroad not even in some domestic workshops in language teaching.
In terms of language teaching, an information exchange among these teachers
shows that they usually employ the traditional method of teaching even though the teachers
are always aware of the importance of the new trend in teaching method nowadays:
learner- centered approach, communicative approach when teaching English to the
students of the specific field. They try to give their students independence in studying by
asking them to work through the text or discussing subject matters in groups, giving them
some instructions before asking them to make presentation or role play in front of the class,
students at the time play the key role in the lesson and they feel highly motivated in
learning. However, only one or two teachers can sometimes do these and the amount of
time spent on such activities is not much.
Actually, all teachers in our college, myself included have to work harder and make
our best effort to respond to the requirement of the new teaching situation.
2.3. Teaching facilities
Teaching facilities are considered significant and may have positive and negative
effects on the teaching process. At THCCA, English teaching and learning activities are
mostly carried in fixed classrooms that make it difficult for teachers to make a change in
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applying new ideas of new teaching methods in language teaching. What’s more, there are
33 students in each class. It is not easy to carry out a communicative task in a mixed ability
and large classroom.
In THCCA at this time, for example, there are just a few small tape recorders, no
language laboratories and no videos. Many classes are equipped with a LCD projector,
however most of the teachers are untrained to use these machine and the teaching

techniques, so they can not make full use of these facilities. In addition, English and music
classes are not situated in two different places; the noise from next- door music classes
affecting the English learning process is unavoidable.
In terms of materials, there is only one small library at THCCA, thus English books
for reference and self- study are not available and enough to meet the students and
teachers’ need. The problem is that due to the book shortage and limitation in the library,
students are required to read in the library instead of taking books at home.
As a consequence, together with the limitation of teaching method, the teaching
aids, students have almost no exposure to the real language that they are learning. It is not
altogether surprising then that some difficulties occurred.
2.4. Students and their background
Students of THCCA come from all parts of Thanh Hoa province (Thanh Hoa city,
districts and mountainous areas). Most of these students commonly spent most of time
learning three subjects: literature, history and geography in order to pass THCCA entrance
exam. So, they are real beginners at English when entering the first year of college and of
different language proficiency levels. Some of them have learned English for 7 years at
secondary and high school some have only learned English for 3 years and some others
have never learned English before. Students from Thanh hoa city and towns (Bim Son,
Sam Son) seem better at English. However, during the years at secondary schools as well
as at high schools, these students are trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-
Translation method, the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language,
not on the acquisition of language skills, especially those in speaking skill. As a result, they
can not speak fluently and most of them do not feel confident in communicating in
English.
Another element that should be taken into consideration is that many students don’t
have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend mainly on the given text books
15
and the teachers for knowledge. These facts call for teachers to provide students with
language teaching methods in order to motivate them in speaking lessons.
2.5. Materials used for non- major students of culture management at THCCA.

2.5.1. The objectives of the course
After graduating a 3 year course at THCCA, students get a college degree
specialized in culture management and an office secretary certificate. This certificate has
two functions: it can be used for their future job application. Moreover, this certificate is
more valuable and credible than other normal English certificate since its purpose is very
appropriate to their job requirement while other English certificates only prove language
proficiency of the applicant. Therefore, those who take part in this course may have more
than one choice to apply for the job as office secretaries or culture managers.
The objective of the course, first of all is to provide students with general
knowledge of English. Secondly, the course aims at improving the professional knowledge
of English to adapt their future job requirement.
By the end of the course, students will be able to improve their speaking skill and
enrich their useful vocabulary relating to the field of study. Besides, they will be supplied
with intensive knowledge of the job of an office secretary and related terms in the
hospitality industry so that they can use English confidently as a tool in their future job.
2.5.2. Syllabus and materials
At THCCA, the teaching of English is divided into two stages. During the first
stage (consisting of the first three terms), students study general English with four micro
skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The second stage lasts one term in
which students learn English related to their field. That means ESP is introduced only after
the students have studied GE for 3 terms.
The first stage is considered to be the most important to student’s development of
the four macro language skills since they have more time and chances to practice their
skills basically than in the second one.
As far as the materials are concerned, “Lifeline Elementary” text book and
workbook are chosen in GE classes. The time devoted to GE is 135 periods (each period
lasts 45 minutes).
The 2
nd
stage is time for students to study English for their professional field. At

this stage, those who want to have an additional office secretary certificate study the course
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book “English for office secretaries” designed by teachers working in English group at
THCCA. The ESP course book covers 8 units dealing with different topics “Receiving
visitors: visitors with appointments, visitors without appointments and special visitors;
Telephone calls; Telephone messages; Writing a letter; Writing a notice and fax; Dealing
with complaints; Making arrangement; Acceptance, Negotiation and Refusal ”. The ESP
syllabus is meant for one semester with the length of 75 periods and fulfilled within 15
weeks, thus students will have 5 periods per week. Each units lasts for 5 to 10 periods
depending on the length and difficulty of its content.
The purpose of teaching ESP is to develop the students’ communicative
competence so that they can communicate comfortably and confidently for their future
career. Accordingly, speaking skill is paid attention to at this stage and it accounts for two
thirds of the total time provided. However, other skills including reading and writing are
taught integrated in those speaking class hours.
In conclusion, this study is carried out at THCCA and limited to the second year
students of Culture management. Once again, within the size and scope of the study,
“English for office secretaries" textbook is chosen to conduct the study.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter deals with the research methodology that has been employed for the
achievement of the aims and objectives of the study. The rationale for the method chosen
for the study presented in this thesis is also mentioned. The data gathering method utilizing
questionnaires are discussed in terms of their purposes as well as how they were developed
and used in the study.
3.1. Research questions
The research is aimed to find out speaking difficulties encountered by teachers and
non-English major students of Culture management Study at THCCA. Also the study
explores the solution to deal with the problem. In brief, its purpose is to answer the
following questions.
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1. What are the difficulties encountered by non- English major students who
are learning speaking skill in the English course book “English for office
secretaries" at THCCA?
2. What are difficulties for the teachers in teaching speaking skill?
3. What are feasible solutions to overcome the identified difficulties?
3.2. The subjects
The subjects of the study are 7 teachers of English who teach English to non-
English major students at THCCA. They range from 24 to 50 years of age. Of the 7
teachers, five have been trained from fulltime course at Hanoi Foreign language Teachers
Training College, the two others graduated from in-service course. All of them have taught
English to non-English major students at least 1 year.
The second year, 80 students were randomly chosen from 100 students. Their age
varied between 19 and 22 so they belonged to the same psychological age group. However,
their length of English learning at school (before entering our college ) was different :
some have learned English for 3 years or six years, some others have never learnt English
before.
The reason for choosing the second year students for this study is as follow:
“English for Office secretaries” text book is chosen to provide insights into the area of
difficulties in speaking skill of students of Culture management study. Students only start
the ESP course in their second year after under taking the GE course.
3.3. The data collection instrument
Richard and Lockhart (1994) state that questionnaires are an effective way of
yielding data quickly in respect of “effective dimension of teaching and learning as beliefs,
attitudes, motivation and preferences”. In addition, the administration of the questionnaires
was convenient for the data collection procedure. So this study uses questionnaires as a
main tool to get information to fulfill the aims of the study.
* Questionnaire for the students
The first questionnaire, consisting of 8 questions, was delivered to 80 students at
THCCA. The aims of this were to elicit:
(1) Students’ background of English ( question 1, 2 ).

(2) Students’ attitude towards speaking skill ( question 3 ).
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(3) Students’ difficulties in learning speaking ( question 4, 5 ).
(4) Students’ interest in speaking activities ( question 6 ).
With question 1, 2, 3, and 4 the students must only choose one answer while they can
choose more than one answers to question 5 and 6
* Questionnaire for the teachers
The second questionnaire which includes 8 questions, was delivered to 7 teachers at
THCCA. The purpose of this questionnaire was to identify:
(1) Teachers’ experience of teaching English ( question 1).
(2) Difficulties confronted by the teachers when teaching speaking to non- major
students at THCCA (question 2).
(3) Teachers’ solutions to the difficulties faced by them (question 3, 4 , 5, 6,7, 8)
To answer the question 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 the teachers can choose more than one options
3.4. Data analysis
Data from questionnaires were sorted and analyzed statistically to get answers for
the research questions raised in the previsous part. The information was then displayed in
forms of tables and charts
3.5. Summary.
This chapter presented the research questions, data collection instrument and
analysis. In the next chapter, the data analysis and discussion will be presented
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion
4.1. Presentation and analysis of data
4.1.1. Questionnaire for the teachers
4.1.1.1. Their teaching experience
Years of teaching English N
0
of teachers %
1 – 4 3 42.9
5 – 9 2 28.6

10 – 15 1 14.3
16 - 25 1 14.3
Table 1: The teachers’ experience of teaching
According to the data collected in table 1, three out of 7 teachers (42.9%) have
been teaching English from 1-4 years, 28.6% have experience of teaching from 5-9 years.
The rest (28.6%) have been teaching for more than 10 years. It is concluded that more than
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half of teachers at THCCA have been teaching English for 5 to 25 years, which is very
significant in term of their language adjustment and experience in teaching speaking.
4.1.1.2. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking to students at THCCA
• Difficulties from the students
Difficulties related to the students are categorized into: Low English proficiency,
limited motivation in learning, use of Vietnamese during pair work or group, passive style
of learning and students’ not participating in class.
Chart 1: Difficulties from the students
As present in chart 1, only 14.3% of the teachers referred their difficulties to
students’ not participating in class whereas all of the respondents confirmed that the
students’ low English proficiency was a constrain for them. Another problem arising from
the students was limited motivation in learning. Many of respondents (85.7%) accepted
that their students’ lack of motivation was a trouble to them. The students’ use of
Vietnamese during pair work or group work was a hindrance to their teaching as well. All
of the subjects affirmed this problem. Lastly, the students’ passive learning style was a
constraint. The fact that, students’ traditional learning style influenced their speaking skill.
Students seem to depend on the teacher and use Vietnamese a great deal during their task
due to their low English proficiency. Consequently, the aim to enhance the students to be a
fluent communicator can not be reached.
In brief, the four problems arising from the students as low English proficiency,
low motivation in learning, use of Vietnamese during pair work and group work and
passive learning style created one of the barriers to the teachers in teaching speaking.
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• Difficulties from the educational system.
Chart 2: Difficulties from educational system
Regarding hindrances from the educational system reported by the teachers gave us
an interesting fact that 42.9% of the teachers complained large class size and lack of
facilities were real obstacles to their teaching while 100% found it hard to teach speaking
because of lacking authentic materials. Additionally, the majority of the subjects (85.7%)
assumed that multi-level classes prevented them from implementing speaking task and
activities. The rest confronted by 28.6% of the teachers were unsuitable timetable and too
little time to carry out speaking task and activities. In my opinion, these are not only the
difficulties of teachers at THCCA but also the difficulties of English language teachers at
almost non- language major universities and colleges.
• Difficulties from the teachers.
Options N
0
of teachers %
Lack of training in teaching speaking skills 0 0
Lack of specialized knowledge of office secretaries 7 100
Deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in
English
4 57.1
Table 2: Difficulties from the teachers
Among difficulties from the teachers, their lack of specialized knowledge of
office secretaries appeared the problems to all of the teachers. In addition, 57.1% claimed
that they had deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English when
teaching speaking to non-major students for a longtime and none of the teachers thought
they lacked of training in teaching speaking skills.
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The result from survey questionnaire indicated that the causes of teachers
difficulties are related to partly the students factors and partly the education system and the
teachers ourselves.

4.1.1.3. Teachers’ solutions to their difficulties in teaching speaking skills.
•Teachers’ solutions to multi-level class
Options N
0
of teachers %
Give some prompts to the less able students 6 85.7
Encourage collaborative work from students 7 100
Allocate easy questions to the less able students and more
difficult ones the more able ones
3 42.9
Praise weak students more often 3 42.9
Give open ended questions that allow weak students to give
their answers
7 100
Organize pair work and group work including good and weak
students
5 71.4
Table 3: Teachers’ solutions to multi-level class
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the highest percentage of the
subjects (100%) favored giving open ended questions that allow weaker students to give
their answers and encouraging collaborative work from the students. But in fact, how to
encourage collaborative work from the students is not easy to all the teachers. In a multi
level class, it is very difficult for the less able students to catch up with the more able ones
85.7% of the teachers, therefore, chose to give some prompts to the less able students.
Another finding is that 71.4% agreed to organize pair work and group work including good
and weak students. Praising weaker students more often and allocating easy questions
(Yes/ no questions or tag questions: “ Do you find it easy or difficult to start conversation
with a visitor you have never met before?” ) to the less able students and more difficult
ones (Wh- questions: What do you do when you have to attend to visitors who’s waiting in
your office?) to the more able ones were the ways taken by the other teachers (42.9%).

• Solutions to students’ low motivation in learning
Options N
0
of teachers %
Create interesting topics which are suitable for their level 6 85.7
Give encouraging and positive correction and feed back
on students’ mistakes
6 85.7
Encourage the students by giving the additional mark 3 42.9
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for their voluntary speaking
Use authentic materials ( songs, films, games,….) 4 57.1
Do brainstorming exercises so that they have something
to talk about
3 42.9
Get them to speak by giving some prompts 2 28.5
Explain the importance of speaking in the classroom to
the students
0
0
Table 4: Teachers’ solutions to students’ low motivation
For the students’ low motivation, nearly all of the teachers (85.7%) selected the
remedies either to give encouraging and positive correction and feedback on students
mistakes or to create interesting topics which are suitable for the students’ level., However,
for 57.1% of the respondents, using authentic materials ( songs, films, games,….) might
motivate their students to speak to some extent. It is also noticeable that 3 subjects
considered doing brainstorming exercises and giving encouraging and positive correction
on students’ mistakes as good ways. In the other option, no subject
favored explaining the importance of speaking in the classroom to the students.
• Solutions to students’ use of Vietnamese during groups work or pair work

Chart 3 : Teachers’ solutions to students’ use of Vietnamese during group work or pair work
According to the teachers, the students’ use of Vietnamese during pair work or
group work could be surmounted in reference to the following solutions : a great number of
the teachers (85.7%) considered the way to move around to observe the students as a
remedy to the hindrance, many teachers (42.9%) accepted to encourage the students to
speak English, only few of respondents (14.3%) thought of criticizing the students for their
use of Vietnamese.
• Teachers solutions to students’ low English proficiency
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Options N
0
of teachers %
Neglect the students 0 0
Divide the students into pairs or groups including
good and weak students to help the weaker students
7 100
Give students chances and allot time for preparation 3 42.9
Move around to observe and help the students 2 28.6
Table 5: Teachers’ solutions to students’ low English proficiency
For students’ low English proficiency, the respondents reported paying attention to
the two solutions. All of them (100%) thought of putting the students into pairs or groups
including good and weak students. Also, many of them (42.9%) chose the way to give
students chances and allot time for preparation. A minority of them (28.6%) referred to
moving around to observe and help the students. Especially, none of the subjects (0%)
intended to neglect the students with low English proficiency.
• Teachers’ solutions to students’ passive learning style
Options N
0
of teachers %
Create a variety of activities to have the students participate in 6 85.7

Use praise when the students volunteer to speak 4 57.1
Encourage the students to share their ideas with the teacher 2 28.5
Organize group work or pair work 2 28.5
Give the students assignments 3 42.9
Table 6: Teachers’ solutions to students’ passive learning style
For students’ passive learning style, 85.7% of the teachers regarded creating a
variety of activities to have the students participate in as a good solution. Using praise
when the students volunteer to speak (51.7%) and giving the students assignments (42.9%)
were chosen by many of the teachers. Nevertheless, a small number of the subjects
(28.5%) believed in encouraging the students to share the ideas with the teachers as well as
organizing group work or pair work to deal with the problem.
• Teachers’ solutions to the lack of authentic materials
Options N
0
of teachers %
Find authentic teaching materials on the Internet,
magazines, newspapers,………….
4 57.1
Borrow authentic teaching materials from your
friends at home and abroad.
5 71.4
Ask groups of students to find out required authentic
teaching materials and then give them mark
2 28.5
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Encourage the students to take part in speaking forum
on the Internet
6 85.7
Table 7: Teachers’ solutions to the lack of authentic materials
In respect of the lack of authentic materials, most of respondents (85.7%)

confirmed that encourage the students to take part in speaking forum on Internet could
improve the situation. Many of them (71.4%) suggested the way to borrow authentic
teaching materials from friends at home and abroad. The Internet, magazines, newspapers
are good authentic sources for the teachers but not all of them have enough time and ability
to make use of them to teach speaking. Therefore 42.9% agreed that they should find
authentic materials on the Internet, magazines, and newspapers. The other solutions
favored by 28.5% of the teachers was asking groups of students to find out required
authentic teaching materials and then give them mark. However many teachers didn’t
believe their students’ sources and classification of necessary materials.
In summary, the teachers suggested many solutions to the difficulties from the
students, educational system and the teachers themselves. Noticeably, in the other option
of all questions, no subject specified anything, which may indicate that the set choices
covered their possible answers.
4.1.2. Questionnaire for the students
4.1.2.1. Students’ background of learning English
Question 1 is aimed to find
out the students’ place of living before
entering college. This is considered to be
an indicator of students’ social
background which is said to be related to
their conditions for learning English.
.
An can be seen in chart 4, most of the students (53.7%) come from the countryside
where the English learning condition is poor. Whereas only 23.75% of the respondents
come from city where they have better conditions for learning English. More
noticeably,22.5% of the students are from mountainous areas where English seems to be
strange for them.
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Chart 4: Students’ history of learning English